As an organization dedicated to educational issues to support children, we felt compelled to reach out to you to ask for your endorsement on a petition currently underway to improve transparency by Douglas County School Board. Transparency is a critical component for building trust and cohesiveness for a school district and is an issue we can all agree is fundamental to a strong and thriving community.

The Strong Schools Coalition has initiated a petition requesting the Board of Education to immediately schedule a Special Meeting to discuss any and all education reform efforts currently under deliberation and consideration for the November election. With this petition, the Coalition has now made three formal requests of the Board of Education to increase transparency and share with the citizens of Douglas County the plans they have for our Douglas County School District. At the August 7, 2012 board meeting, new rules were summarily instituted which further restrict public engagement. Public comment time is now scheduled nearly two hours earlier than before and is limited to a total of 30 minutes, regardless of the number of individuals requesting an opportunity to speak, making it more difficult for parents of students in the district to attend the meetings. Many individuals representing organizations with diverse views used their public comment time to ask the Board to restore the previous schedule.

Citizens have every right to engage with their democratically-elected government officials and we urge you to endorse this petition and to forward on to your constituency.

The petition and supporting materials can be found at http://www.StrongSchoolsCoalition.com.